


The Tale of a Doomed Lover

by LillithMiles



Series: Dance AU [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-02
Updated: 2013-01-02
Packaged: 2017-11-23 07:39:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/619679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LillithMiles/pseuds/LillithMiles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Knowing the story is important"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tale of a Doomed Lover

**Author's Note:**

> They always look better in my mind because I can see the action. Also, what I know of dancing is what I saw in Save the Last Dance and Step Up (the first one).
> 
> You might want to read the first before this, to understand things better. =)
> 
> Also, what's a Beta?

"I've told you to not catch me in an embrace..."

Gendry looked up to her. She didn't look really upset with his mistake.

"Sorry."

Her hands were in his shoulders, but she didn't pat him as she usually did; it was her sign for him to put her down.

"No, I liked this better...", said Loras, showing up from nowhere. He was always advising Arya and giving construtive criticism about her coreography and everyday he saw Loras in the auditorium, Gendry asked himself why he kept coming. Loras could help her more than he could.

"Why?", asked Arya, when Gendry put her down.

"It's more intimate... It shows more emotion. Let me see the other way." He sat on a chair on the front row and Arya sighed, taking distance. When she jumped, Gendry held her with his hands, like she had told him to. Loras shook his head.

"The other way is definitely better."

"Really?"

"Arya, he's seeing you again after the grief, the suffering. This man won't just hold you, he'll hug you, he'll want to feel you close." Loras looked at Gendry. "Nephew, what you think?"

Gendry didn't bother to tell the dancer to not call him 'nephew'. "I don't know the story behind the coreography."

"She didn't tell you? Arya, you didn't tell him? Knowing the story is important." He got up and climbed up the stage. Arya opened her mouth to reply, but he raised his hand. "I'll give him the abridged version. Come on, in position."

"What position?", asked a very lost Gendry. Arya, standing in front of him, smiled and stretched one arm, her other hand resting on his shoulder. "Oh, like normal dancing. Okay."

Loras stood behind him, one hand joined Arya and Gendry's and the other on Gendry's waist.

"I lead, but pretend I'm just a voice narrating the story. You'll walk 4 large steps forward, start with this leg." He patted Gendry's left thigh and the younger nodded. "Now, nephew, you have to know that you love this woman."

"What?" Gendry turned and Loras scowled.

"Always look at your partner." He pushed Gendry's face back to the right position. "You love her and she loves you. You are getting married and everything is perfect. Walk in 5, 6, 7, 8."

Loras pushed Gendry gently and he moved, following the Tyrell's counting.

"Now, turn." Hand on their hands, he led Arya and Gendry on a slow spin. "Take her arm and walk behind me, at my pace. "

"One night," he resumed to the story. "You take her home and say goodbye with a kiss." Arya gave him a peck on the cheek. Gendry had to remind himself that she was in character. "Walk back to the corner of the stage, you're not part of the next scene."

Gendry moved quickly to his place, smiling. Loras went on.

"What you, lovebirds, don't know is that there's another man who's in love with her. And he follows her home to confess his undying feelings!" He knelt on the floor and took Arya's hand, but looked at Gendry to see if he was paying attention.

"He proposes to her, but she refuses!" Arya pulls her hand away and presses it against her chest, a dreamy expression on her face. "She can't marry me because she loves you. Driven mad for the rejection, I start to break everything in sight." He moves around, pretending to shove things and Arya feigns fear. "In the edge of my anger, I pull my knife and I stab her!" Loras moved his fist against Arya's stomach and her eyes widened before she falls on the stage floor. For half of a second, Gendry thought that Loras had actually punched Arya, but she's smiling on the floor, so he decides she's okay.

"On the next day, the small village sees the morbid surprise: the murderer hanged himself in a tree on the square, leaving only a note confessing his crime."

Loras walked back to Gendry, took his hand and led him back to Arya. "You hear the stories, but you don't believe, you can't believe it, not until you see her." He kicks lightly the back of one of Gendry's knees and pushes him gently to the ground. "The love of your life is dead." He says it in a very dramatic tone but Gendry only nods. "I said the love of your life is dead! Are you emotionally impaired? Show some grief, for God's sake!"

"Just hold me." whispers Arya and he does just that.

"How can life be so cruel, you wonder. In a day, you're the happiest man on Earth and in the next... You don't even have the consolation of a vengeance, her murderer is already dead. You just go home, drowning in sorrow, not knowing what to do..." He points to the corner of the stage where Gendry was before.

"I'm supposed to leave her body like this? No funeral...?"

"This is the abridged version, don't make it complicated. Go to your corner. Show some sadness, you saw your girlfriend in a pool of her own blood!"

"I'm not an actor!"

"I can see that. Just put some spirit in this."

"I'm dead and rotting here. Can we move on?"

"Right. She died, you're lost and can't deal with the pain. What do you do?"

"Seek professional help?"

Loras made a face. "There's no psychiatrist in this small, poor village of the beggining of last century. Don't make me slap you."

Gendry chuckled. "Sorry."

"You drink, my friend. Day and night, until you pass out. And when you wake up, you drink some more. And comes the day when you can't even make distinction between dream and reality. And that's when she comes to you." Loras pulled Gendry by the hand and gestured to Arya to come forward. Her face is a mask of serenity and her smile makes her look like she's stoned.

"You are seeing her and can touch her and smell her scent. After seeing her dead. The love of your life is back to your arms once again. Now tell me, Gendry. You would hug this woman or hold her at arm's distance like she's a bomb?"

"Hug."

"Exactly. So when she jumps to you, you'll hold her close to you, you'll look at her face because you can't see anything but her. When you put her down, do it slowly. Remember: you don't want this to end, she can be gone at any time, you can't waste any chance."

"I'm not sure if I can do all that..."

"No shit. Just embrace her and put her down slowly."

To his own surprise, Gendry did the sequence quite well. Arya had pressed his face against her chest and whispered to him to close his eyes. When she gave him the sign to put her down, she kept a hand on the bak of his neck and tigged lightly on his hair when he looked at his feet. Gendry lifted his gaze and met hers, nodding. 'Always look at your partner', he thought.

They went over the whole coreography again, Gendry having less work since she had lessened the number of elevations. Her official partner, a guy called edric, wasn't very good with the lifts and catches.

"He tries, but it's not his specialty."

"He should eat more protein and lift some weights to see if can put some meat on those bones. and get those skinny arms to be more like this." He grabbed one of Gendry's arms. "Flex it, please" Gendry didn't resist the temptation of showing off a little bit. Loras tried to squeeze his bicep. "If little Edric put on some of this, you'll do great."

"Why he's never around?", asked Gendry.

"We couldn't make our schedules match. We meet once a week, only. Thank God I have you." She smiled at him and finished packing her stuff. They started walking out of the auditorium, Loras behind them, talking on his phone.

"I'm not of much help, though. I think Loras would be a better partner..."

"Ah, but he's just here because you are. He wants to be your friend."

"Actually I want to see where this is going." Loras walked faster and put his arms over them.

"I think the coreography will be great."

"Yes, nephew. That's exactly what I'm talking about." He shook his head and said his goodbyes, heading to his car.

"Did I miss something?"

"Don't try to understand him, I stopped long ago." They walked in silence for a moment before she talked again. "So, my sister is having a party this Saturday and I don't even know how she convinced me to show up, specially because I don't hang out with her friends, but she did. It'd be nice if you came"

"Sure."

"Great. I'll text you the address. See you there."

"Bye, Arya."

"Bye, Gendry."

They turned at opposite directions, heading for their classes, stupid smiles on their faces.


End file.
